Günter Grass is one of the writers who grew up in a Germany already in the grip of Nazism. None of them has found better ways than his of translating the sordid history of the movement into fiction; none has looked more critically at the ‘denazification’ and reconstruction of Germany. In this important study, originally published in 1985, Ronald Hayman scrutinizes Grass’s development and assesses his achievement. He finds that Grass’s more recent work does not fulfil the promise of the
The Tin Drum
and his other early novels. While this study focuses mainly on the fiction, it also takes into account the poetry, plays, political writing, criticism and graphic work. Grass is important not only as an exemplar of the guilt-laden German conscience but as one of the most ambitious and accomplished living fabulists.